Defending champion Roger Federer is happy to prove that big is not always better at Wimbledon.
On rapid-fire grass courts, the big servers traditionally dominate but the Swiss top seed is showing that the man with the biggest gun doesn’t always win the war.
The top seed, who faces Sebastien Grosjean in the semifinals, has only dropped serve once in these championships and has lost just a single set with a game that is far from power-packed.
In the ace count at the championships, the 22-year-old world number one is only 12th on the list with 48 from his five matches whereas the table leader Joachim Johansson of Sweden smacked down 125 but never made it beyond the fourth round.
Andy Roddick, the second-seeded American, is fourth on the list with 76 aces despite holding the world record for the fastest serve.
Croatia’s Mario Ancic, who faces Roddick in the last four, is sixth with 65 while Grosjean is 10th having recorded 51 aces.
”Aces are just really for the statistics,” said Federer. ”They don’t always show the truth. I think that first serve points won, that’s an important stat.”
Roddick, too, believes there is too much emphasis placed on aces.
”It’s a telling stat, but just because someone’s hitting aces doesn’t mean they’re holding serve every time,” said the US Open winner.
”Obviously it is a factor in how well you serve. If you’re getting a bunch of aces, you’re feeling pretty good about your first serve. Like I said, service games held is the most important one, along with first-serve percentage.”
Britain’s Tim Henman, who hit 50 aces before he crashed out in the quarterfinal to Ancic, believes that Andre Agassi, the only player of his generation to have won all four Grand Slam titles, is the best illustration of not needing the big serve to gain major success.
”You can read a lot into statistics in a lot of different ways,” said Henman.
”Someone like Agassi, for example, he drops his serve so often, but he doesn’t hit a great deal of aces. It’s how you take care of each and every point.” — Sapa-AFP